Created: 11/21/2009 10:02:15 PM 
Families are going hungry as the demand for help grows.
In a recent report, the US Department of Agriculture reported 49 million Americans do not have enough food throughout the year. That's the highest it's been in fourteen years. The report also found that food pantries and government programs are not filling the gap.
Second Harvest Food Bank in Winston-Salem serves eighteen counties in North Carolina, and they report the same problems.
They report a 76 percent increase in the demand for food in just the past year. That means there is an extra 100,000 people that need help. Chuck Harmon with Second Harvest says it's become difficult to meet that need, "It's an incredible deal when you are looking at 150-thousand people one year and you increase it by 100-thousand. And the jobs, you still hear the job loss is growing. It's a bigger base than we can just about keep up with."
Harmon explained the group will distribute about 13-million pounds of food this year, when they really needed to send out around 15 or 16-million pounds. "What has surprised us is the sheer magnitude, just how quickly this thing has blossomed into these numbers and these faces of folks who have never had to have assistance before," said Harmon.
If you would like to help you can visit this website: hhttp://www.hungernwnc.org/
Reported by: Ashley Smith
